At a joint press conference on Wednesday 5 February, the Chairwoman of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Group in the European Parliament, Iratxe García Pérez, and the former Vice-President of the European Commission and current leader of the GroenLinks-PvdA Group in the Netherlands, Frans Timmermans, pledged their commitment to an ambitious continuation of the European Green Deal, despite political tensions and attempts to call its objectives into question.
According to Iratxe García Pérez, it’s not a question of choosing between competitiveness and ecological transition: “We have to do both. We need to work on the Green Deal objective and think about our competitiveness”.
She stressed that defence, cohesion and social justice policies must go hand in hand with the transition, urging new public and private funding, as well as taxation of the wealthiest to finance the EU budget.
“We cannot do more with the same resources”, she insisted, pointing out that energy security and reducing the EU’s dependence on fossil fuels are also objectives of the Green Deal.
Frans Timmermans, for his part, recalled the central role of this body of environmental regulations – of which he was the architect - in the EU’s industrial policy. “As far as the Green Deal is concerned, this is our industrial policy”, he said, insisting that on this point the new Commission should stick to the “policy lines (...) agreed” together.
It would be “a good service to the industry and to our fellow citizens”, he added.
The Greens representative also deplored the fact that the richest benefited disproportionately from green subsidies, and recommended that policies be redirected to serve the most disadvantaged: massive investment in the energy transition and in affordable housing for young Europeans are a major lever in his opinion.
Asked about a possible merger between the Greens and the Socialists despite the dissension, particularly in France, Frans Timmermans said that while there was no single solution, strengthening the left remained a priority.
Along the same lines, he and Iratxe García Pérez called for greater unity, believing that the EU’s success lay in its ability to cooperate across internal divides. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)